Wiley Horne--So. Calif.
>Hi Bill,

It's almost collectible just because of the improbability of finding a W. Butcher (strike 1), incannel (strike 2), socket (strike 3) gouge, in (strike 4) California. Wait a minute, there's only 3 strikes. It would help if you could remember the mark--was it the feathered arrow mark, or one of the more exotic marks? The original W. Butcher died in 1870, after an abortive steel casting venture in American, I believe, but the mark may have lived on for quite a while.

If the chisel was marked 'cast steel', that means the raw steel was cast. The gouge is forged.

The lamination question is interesting, to me anyway. Can Stephen Shepherd or someone else knowledgeable describe how socket chisels/gouges were made over time? I mean, were there originally iron sockets and shanks laminated to steel bits? I suppose so, because socket chisels go way back--Moxon shows one in his House Carpentry section, Plate 8. Smith's Key has a few. But then at some point socket chisels began to be forged from solid, but when did that happen?

Wiley